DISABLED Middlewich residents risk their lives to carry out everyday tasks like going to the shops, according to an army veteran.

Disabled facilities in the town are so shoddy, simply leaving the house can become a nightmare, says Phillip Shales, of Kitfield Avenue.

The father-of-two, who served for six years with the Cheshire Regiment, has highlighted defects with disabled access in the town.

To cross the road to get to the shops on Wheelock Street, he has to steer his motorised wheelchair down the lowered paving on one side of the road, turn into oncoming traffic and ride 60 yards in the opposite direction along the road before he can turn again to go up the dropped pavement on the other side of the street.

And Mr Shales claims it is impossible to leave his home on bin collection day due to the obstacles posed by wheelie bins blocking his way.

Lack of access to shops means he has to call his chemist out into the street to deliver his medicine while on roads like Lewin Street, he has to precariously balance his wheelchair on high and narrow pavements while dodging heavy goods vehicles.

On top of all that, Mr Shales, 53, paralysed with osteoarthritis, claims he has suffered prejudice and abuse from some able-bodied residents.

He said: 'Just going to the shops in Middlewich can be an absolute nightmare.

'I suffer terrible prejudice from some people - you wouldn't believe some people's attitude to the disabled.

'I have been able-bodied and you don't think of the problems, so I feel so sorry for people who have suffered this all their lives.'

Will Dingli, of the Disability Rights Commission, said: 'The council needs to look at the way it is providing access for disabled people in Middlewich.

'It needs to comply with its duties under the Disabled Discrimination Act and we would urge it to make haste.'

A spokesman for Cheshire County Council said a dropped pavement opposite the existing one would be installed 'within a couple of months' but that it was impossible to widen the pavement at Lewin Street without narrowing the road.